Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
More seriously, I agree with your sentiment. If I still strongly associate a word or phrase with some other fiction that has no right to be known in this new universe ("beam me up, Scotty!") then I will definitely be disturbed in my reading. But the impact is going to vary widely from reader to reader.
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Oh I agree entirely. I was mostly having a little fun (though "quixotic" did truly trip me up). Clearly the degree to which a reader may be disturbed by words/phrases like this is largely based on personal preference/tolerance, experience and familiarity with the etymology of particular words. I'd never seriously suggest that it's the duty of all authors to limit their fictional characters' vocabularies to words whose etymology won't "break the fourth (fictional) wall," so to speak. I'd just encourage authors to be cognizant of the fact that such words/phrases do
exist for some readers.
Spoiler:
... and to avoid using the ones that will bug
me (or failing that, to not take it personally whenever I encounter one I can't--rational or not--ignore).
